The local authority will carry out a series of checks — including interviews, criminal-records checks, and a visit to the person's property — before granting permission.

For firearms other than a shotgun, applicants must give police a "good reason" for wanting to own one. Hunting or being a member of a shooting club, for example, might be seen as good reasons. Self-defence won't be considered a valid reason.

Semiautomatic firearms — guns that will keep firing one round every time you pull the trigger — are legal as long as the size of the cartridge they are designed to fire are no bigger than .22 inches in diameter.

Shotguns are legal at long as they can't hold more than three shotgun shells – including the one in the chamber if it's a pump-action or semiautomatic shotgun. There's no such restriction for rifles.

Most people think that you can only own shotguns where the shells are loaded by hand (popular in clay shooting, for example), but you can actually own and use semiautomatic shotguns, such as this Benelli M4.

United States Marine Corps

The Ruger 10/22 is one of the most popular rifles for new shooters in the UK. It's a semiautomatic rifle that has been in production since 1964.

There are quite a few semiautomatic .22 LR versions of military rifles that you can buy in the UK, including this Heckler & Koch MP5 ...

... this Heckler & Koch HK416, a version of the AR15 rifle that is used by special forces around the world ...

... and you can now even something very close to an AR-15 made by Smith and Wesson. It's called the M & P 15-22 and is based on the real AR15, which is itself the basis for the rifles used by many militaries around the world.

You can even own the British-made Accuracy International sniper rifle. It holds the record for the longest confirmed sniper kill in history and is yours for £23,000.

It's also possible to get some guns that look like handguns, but are actually legal because they've been specially lengthened to get around the restrictions on short-barreled guns. The GSG 1911 long-barrel pistol has a lengthened barrel and a fixed "counterweight rod" at the back which means it gets around the handgun ban.

You can own the pump-action Mossberg 500 too — just as long as it can only hold no more than two cartridges plus one in the chamber.

Punt guns were used in the 19th century to hunt waterfowl. It's still possible to pick them up second hand.

And finally, you can get a custom rifle made for you by the British gun-maker Holland and Holland – like the one below that is chambered in .700 Nitro Express. The gun will cost you a couple hundred-thousand pounds and each round will set you back about £100.